Big
Big is a 1988 fantasy comedy film directed by Penny Marshall, and stars Tom Hanks as Josh Baskin, a young boy who makes a wish "to be big" and is then aged to adulthood overnight. The film also stars Elizabeth Perkins, John Heard, and Robert Loggia and was written by Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg. Plot A young boy makes a wish at a fairground machine to be big. He wakes up the following morning to find that his wish has been granted and his body has grown older over night. But he is still the same 12 year old kid on the inside. Now he must learn how to cope with the unfamiliar world of grown ups including getting a job, and having his first romantic encounter with a woman. What will he find out about this strange world? Trivia Tom Hanks was the first choice to play Josh Baskin but was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts with the films Dragnet and Punchline. Robert De Niro was then offered the lead role, and was rejected because his salary demand ($6 million) was too high. Tom Hanks then became available and accepted the lead role for $2 million. David Moscow was originally cast not as young Josh, but as Billy, since he didn't look like Robert De Niro. When Tom Hanks was given the role, David Moscow was recast as young Josh. David Moscow wore colored contact lenses to match the eye color of Tom Hanks. The script was first developed in 1984. To give star Tom Hanks an idea of how a 12 year-old would behave, director Penny Marshall filmed each "grown-up" scene with David Moscow (Young Josh) playing Tom Hanks's part, who then copied David Moscow's behavior. In preparation for the role, Tom Hanks met David Moscow and studied videotapes of him to see how he behaved and spoke. Tom Hanks also felt that David Moscow should just be himself so that the Josh Baskin character persona would be that of a real 12-year-old. Penny Marshall became the first female director to ever direct a movie that grossed more than $100 million at the box office with this movie. The scenes in Josh's neighborhood were filmed in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. The amusement park scene in the beginning of the movie where the wish was made was filmed at Ross Dock Picnic Area on the Hudson in Fort Lee. It is not an amusement park but was set up as one. The George Washington Bridge can be seen clearly in some of the shots. The scene at the end where he finds the machine were filmed on the pier at Rye Playland, in New York's Westchester County. Jared Rushton's (Billy) hair was dyed for the film. He's a natural blonde. According to Monica Rushton, Jared Rushton (Billy), David Moscow (little Josh) and Tom Hanks (big Josh) were put in a room with a bunch of toys to play with. Having silly string, they tried to use it to gross each other out and that is how the silly string scene between Jared Rushton and Tom Hanks appeared in the movie. The film's budget was estimated at $17 million. The offices of an actual advertising agency on 23rd Street in the Chelsea district in New York City was used for the scenes involving the fictitious MacMillan Toys Company, which were very hard on both the film crew and the actual workers of the agency. The location fee of $25,000 was donated to the American Craft Museum by the agency and Twentieth Century-Fox. Susan's car is a 1988 Subaru XT6. The football jersey Susan is wearing to bed is a NY Jets Jersey with #99 on it. At that time Mark Gastineau wore #99 for the Jets. Along with 1987's Spaceballs and 1988's Caddyshack II and Beetlejuice, notable for containing "the F word" in a film rated PG during the PG-13 era. Box office The movie grossed $151,668,774 worldwide. Henry's copy Henry has the 1995 VHS of this movie from Fox Video. It has a promo for 20th Century Fox Selections.